Ukrainian Varenyky

Ukrainian Varenyky

Varenyky is a popular Ukrainian dish made of boiled dough with diverse fillings, such as meat, mushrooms, vegetables, fruits, cheese etc. Varenyky is not a festive dish, but their taste leaves no one indifferent. These Ukrainian Pirogi or dumplings can be the main course as well as the dessert.

Varenyky dough recipe

If you don`t know how to make vareniki dough, there are several variations of cooking, using mineral water, curdled milk or boiled water as the basic ingredient. Here is the classic and the most popular recipe for vareniki dough.

Ingredients:

egg – 1;

wheat flour – 320 g;

water – 250 ml;

salt – a pinch.

How to cook:

Put one cup of flour into the deep bowl. Add salt.

Warm up water till 30-35 degrees and add it to the bowl. Beat up one egg. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

Add the second cup of flour and place the mixture on surface covered with flour. Knead the dough with your hands. If it is sticking add some flour.

Continue kneading the dough until it becomes elastic.

Cover kneaded vareniki dough with a bowl or damp cloth and leave it for the “rest” for 40 minutes.

When the dough is ready, roll it out and using the special round shape or a cup cut out circles. Then place the filling in the center of each circle and tight up the edges. Put vareniki to the boiling water and boil for several minutes.

Varenyky fillings

There is a great variety of varenyky fillings for any taste in Ukraine. They can be sweet or salty, spicy or sour, piquant or unleavened. The most popular fillings are:

meat;

To cook the meat filling you need such ingredients:

chicken meat – 500 g;

onion – 1;

vegetable oil – 1 tbsp.;

salt, pepper.

Boil chicken fillet or chicken quarter. If there are bones, take them away. Chop boiled meat with a knife or using meat grinder and add salt with pepper. Chop onion, fry it with vegetable oil, and then add to minced chicken meat.

potatoes;

Ingredients:

potato – 5-6;

onion – 3;

butter – 100 g;

vegetable oil – 2 tbsp.;

salt, pepper.

Boil potatoes for 20 minutes and then mash them. Chop onion and fry it finely on the hot pan with vegetable oil. Add fried onion, butter, salt and pepper to the mashed potatoes. Mix all ingredients.

Remove kernels from berries (if there are any). Add sugar and starch, mix ingredients. Put two or three berries per one dumpling.

In Ukraine vareniki is not just a national dish, but also a special talisman. Many years ago Ukrainian peasants believed varenyky brought them abundant harvest, so they took their miraculous dumplings to the fields.

In the ancient Slavic period women used to eat vareniki on the second day of their wedding, as a symbol of wellbeing and wellness. Vareniki were also given as the medicine to pregnant women.